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This past month Verizon wired my neighborhood with fiber optic cable. Shortly, they will be introducing their new Fios service which is supposed to outpace cable company offerings with blazingly faster broadband speed.

I am quite excited by this news -- especially for the fact that the faster Fios is supposed to be at least $10 cheaper a month.

Was hoping someone here is actually using Fios and can tell me how much faster it is over cable. I remember reading an article in USA TODAY or THE WALL STREET JOURNAL less than 2 weeks ago from a columnist who was touting the speed difference.

The only thing that worries me about Fios is cable competition. I understand that onceFios goes widespread, the cable companies are going to increase their broadband speed to match or exceed what the Verizon service is offering.

In other words, it may or may not be worth switching providers if there is a cloud of competition on the horizon.

I would definitely make the switch if Fios was available in my area. I have yet to hear anyone complain about the speed of it. Everything I've heard is that it is definitely worth it to switch from cable. Especially since it is cheaper!

I would switch to Fios for now. If the cable companies do retaliate with a better offering, then wait about 6-12 months and see what financial incentives they'll give you to switch back.

I've had FIOS for almost a year now and couldn't be happier. I'm getting exactly 15mbits down and 2mbits up on speed tests (when the server on the other side is up to it) which is the promised speed for my connection. Downloaded Fedore Core 3, both the DVD and 4 CD's at same time in (IIRC) about 2-2.5 hours.

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If you don't need the extra speed, you can leverage the threat of switching services to get a price decrease from your current service. A quick call to ask if they will match or beat the FIOS price, with the threat of leaving, may save you some cash and the bother of switching services.

Verizon has been laying fiber like crazy here in Northern Va. For some strange reason my cable company Cox, all of the sudden bumped the internet speeds to match the Fios speeds without bumping the cost(5MBit and 15Mbit depending on what package).

Coaxial cable just doesn't have the same bandwidth as the FIOS. Sure the speeds are close now but cable is approaching its max speed and FIOS still has a waaaaaaays to go before they hit their cap. Sooner or later the coax cable companies are screwed.

Also of interest: Verizon will be offering television services via the fiber channel very soon. According to an article in last week's Wall Street Journal, the first city in the country to recieve the FIOS service last year (the name escapes me--somewhere in Texas) received television services last week via FIOS. 150 channels for $37.00/month.

The cable monopoly is just about over (at least until Comcast buys Verizon. )

"The services include: * Basic, with access to 15-35 local broadcast, weather and community channels, as well as video-on-demand, for $12.95 per month. The service is digital with a set-top box. Basic is also available as an analog service that does not require a set-top box for viewing.

* Expanded Basic, Verizon's lead offer, delivers more than 180 video and music channels for $39.95 a month. This tier includes access to 600 on- demand titles now, with 1,800 by year end. This service requires a standard-definition set-top box or a high-definition set-top box for HD channels.

* La Conexion, a tier designed for bilingual consumers who enjoy TV programs in English and Spanish, for $32.95 per month. The package includes nearly 140 channels with English- and Spanish-language programming and access to nearly 600 on-demand titles. This service requires a standard-definition set-top box or a high- definition set-top box for HD channels."

Be wary at first about switching to FIOS. There are two things you should know...

1)You'll loose any DSL connection you currently have if you subscribe to Verison Buisness DSL. We found this out the hard way...

2)You also loose dialup service, unless you specifically tell them to wire it to receive dial up signals. That means in case the service ever goes out(wich it did for us in the first month, has been running smoothly since May), you're stuck without dialup to rely on...

good part is, the customer service people are pretty darn reliable and know there stuff, so you shouldn't have a problem there..

Anyway, we've been running it since April, and after a few false starts, things have been running smoothly since May.

Good luck

Edit: Also if anyone hears about Verizon TV Testing for my town, please be sure to psot it. I emailed the local government and havn't gotten a response yet.

They will need to run fiber to the premise. Then they will install a distributing box inside your house. Internet will be Cat5 cable, TV was said to be still coax and I'm not sure about telephone (as I didn't subscribe for it).

I may have to check into this FIOS. I've been hearing about it for a little while but never really found out enough about it to switch. I've heard that the FIOS also can improve the quality of VoIP service. Probably wouldn't matter in my case because the quality I get is fine anyway.

Comcast is going to really be in for it if they don't keep up. They have enough going against them already with the customer service issues this year and the fact they wouldn't show the nationals games. Cable companies in general I think are going to have to really keep up to stay up.

Update: I received FIOS TV a few weeks ago and I have to say so far I'm VERY HAPPY customer. Much better PQ than Dish Network, receivers have much better connectivity (USB, RS232, optical sound etc.) but I haven't searched yet if there is software that supports them. And it comes with a much better price than Dish, even before the discount I got by having both internet and TV from them.

And no more $5/month charges per receiver for not having a phone line to connect to. These receivers get their updates from the FIOS internet connection.